


The Dark Is Worse When You're Alone

by Yrindor



Series: Sports Anime Shipping Olympics 2016 Fills [18]
Category: Free!
Genre: Blind Nitori Aiichirou, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Nightmares, Prompt Fill, SASO 2016
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-14 23:44:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7196114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/pseuds/Yrindor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Rin, sometimes the memories are worse than the nightmares.  For Nitori, it's the memories that tell him how to help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Dark Is Worse When You're Alone

**Author's Note:**

  * For [phantomwised](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomwised/gifts).



> Written for Sports Anime Shipping Olympics Bonus Round 2. The prompt was [these](https://p.dreamwidth.org/17cb3ee37551/-/67.media.tumblr.com/f98b2e1706cee12628377d98cda737f6/tumblr_inline_o8n869QgkD1r32oga_500.png) [images](https://p.dreamwidth.org/4de03adedead/-/65.media.tumblr.com/c14e3f37a071129212eeb108d2cb8793/tumblr_inline_o8n85hNHN21r32oga_500.png) (Nitori: "Are you okay? Were you having a nightmare?").

"...Rin-senpai? Rin-senpai?"

A worried voice cuts through the haze clouding Rin's mind. "Ai?" he asks, not turning away from where he's crouched in the corner of their room.

"Are you okay? Were you having a nightmare?" Nitori asks quietly.

"No, just a memory."

There's a long pause before Nitori speaks again. "Memories can be nightmares too, Rin-senpai."

The silence that follows is broken only by the sound of Nitori shuffling back to the bed, and Rin hopes he stays there, but then the hesitant footsteps return. Nitori's leg bumps into his back, and then there's a blanket draped around his shoulders. It takes him a minute to recognize it in the dark; it's the blanket Nitori always keeps at the foot of his bed."

"Go back to bed, Ai," Rin says. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"You should go back to bed too, senpai, I…umm...I wouldn't want you to catch a chill."

"I'll be fine, but you should sleep."

He expects to hear Nitori shuffle back across the room, but he doesn't. Instead, Nitori speaks quietly from behind him. "My grandma made that blanket for me," he says. "'The dark is a scary place sometimes, isn't it, Aiichirou?' she'd say as she wrapped me up in it. But she also said it was less scary when there was someone there with you, so I, uh….I don't think she'd like it if I went back to bed right now and left you. You don't have to talk about it or anything if you don't want to, but...but I'm not leaving. Sorry. You're my senpai...and my teammate…"

Rin lets out a pained laugh. "Of course it comes back to swimming," he says bitterly. "It always comes back to swimming."

"That's not what I meant, senpai!" Nitori exclaims. "…I just mean that I care," he says, sounding hurt.

"I was thinking about my father," Rin says into the silence that follows. Somehow it's easier to talk about these things in the dark. "He wanted to be a swimmer, but he had to give that up to support us. I promised I'd follow that dream for him, but then he died, and now sometimes I feel trapped by that dream, and I wonder if I'd still be swimming if it weren't for that promise."

"I know the answer to that, senpai," Nitori says, draping himself across Rin's back and wrapping his arms around Rin's shoulders as he speaks. "You're not swimming for him. Or, well, not to say that you aren't doing it for him at all, but he's not the core of it. You do it to be with Nanase-senpai, and Tachibana-senpai, and sometimes even for the rest of us at Samezuka. Even if you can't see it yourself, everyone else can, and that's why we're here for you." The words leave Nitori in a rush, almost as if they're flowing outside of his control, and he has to fight to stop them.

"I mean, not that Rin-senpai's wrong for feeling that way, and of course you don't have to--" he stops as Rin turns and presses a finger to his lips.

"I know," Rin says. "I know, but sometimes the memories are just too damn loud."

"I'll be louder," Nitori promises, and Rin pulls him into a tight hug.

They don't intend to, but they end up falling asleep there, curled around one another, and they wake up stiff and cold from lying on the floor. Rin's willing to overlook that though, because it's the first time in weeks he hasn't woken up haunted by old memories.

**Author's Note:**

> As always, comments and feedback welcome and appreciated.


End file.
